The Garden of Love
Notes
Transcript
Hymn 813 O Love Divine
6 God has spoken in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth. 7 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter. 8 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
Introduction
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16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits. 1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
We are still in the intimate and private setting of the couple in their room on their wedding night. Many see this as an erotic poem full of euphemisms. Such views are neither helpful nor beneficial. However, we must not neglect the fact that we have here clear teaching on a proper married relationship and it must not be ignored.
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1. Love’s Response 4v16a
1. Love’s Response 4v16a
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16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.
For the first time in this chapter the bride speaks, and does so by way of a most appropriate response to all that the bridegroom has been saying. Warmed and encouraged by all the praise, delight and affection that has been heaped upon her, her response is to desire more and more of the felt presence and joyful experience of the bridegroom. Richard Brooks[1]
There is a clear distinction between these two winds (the north wind coming from the north, the south wind from the south). They are often mentioned separately on weather forecasts. The north wind is sharp, piercing, biting and shivering. The south wind is more balmy, melting, gentle, and ripening. Both are needed at different times. Both come from God’s treasuries and fulfil his will and word. Richard Brooks[2]
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2. Love’s Desire 4v16b
2. Love’s Desire 4v16b
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16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.
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3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
American Stanley Grenz, (Baptist Theologian) writing on sexual ethics, helpfully offers a threefold explanation of sex within the marriage bond. He says that:
1. It signifies the commitment of husband and wife to each other and recalls it. It is designed to represent and strengthen the marriage bond.
2. It is an act of mutual submission. It is a reciprocal expression of the desire to please one’s spouse. Divorced from this setting, it almost inevitably becomes a selfish act.
3. Even when family planning is employed there is an open-endedness to the act; the idea of procreation is never entirely absent. Outside the marriage bed procreation is seldom desired. Gary Brady[3]
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3. Love’s Presence 5v1a
3. Love’s Presence 5v1a
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1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
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4. Love Rejoices 5v1b
4. Love Rejoices 5v1b
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1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
We turn now to what we see of Christ’s love for us
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5. Love’s Response 4v16a
5. Love’s Response 4v16a
Song of Solomon 4:16 (ESV)
16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.
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The Holy Spirit is often likened in Scripture to the wind, so this verse is in no way unusual. In this connection, compare Ezekiel 37:9 (revival), John 3:8 (regeneration) and Acts 2:2 (Pentecost). The picture is very suitable. Both the wind and the Spirit are powerful, and both are unseen in themselves, though you can point in each case to their effects. Both are refreshing and reviving, cooling and fructifying. Both are very necessary, for if everything remains motionless, dead calm and lifeless, disease can flourish and the air becomes unwholesome; while equally the lively motions of the Holy Spirit are absolutely necessary for the Christian’s well-being and the church’s spiritual life. Richard Brooks[4]
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9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
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8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
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1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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6. Love’s Desire 4v16b
6. Love’s Desire 4v16b
16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.
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15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
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26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
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13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
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17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,
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18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
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7. Love’s Presence 5v1a
7. Love’s Presence 5v1a
1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
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14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
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20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
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8. Love Rejoices 5v1b
8. Love Rejoices 5v1b
1 I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
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1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
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8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
Conclusion
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22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
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11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.